Shanna Hatfield's Fun and Simple Tips for Entertaining at Home

The Goose

After he sent out open invitations to every other cat in the neighborhood to drop by his house for a good time, we ended up with this cat:

Maizy – also known as The Interloper – came to visit and still hasn’t left. After a year, I think she’s staying. At first, her presence greatly disturbed The Heinous Cat. He didn’t like her horning in on things. He wanted all the food, all the attention, all the space in my lawn chair for himself.

Despite his hissy fits, repeated attempts to lure her across the road and threats to her well-being, she continued to hang out in our backyard.

They seem to have reached an understanding, of sorts. Tolerating each other and not getting into a cat fight every time they get within spitting distance is new. Part of that may have been due to the fact The Heinous Cat was lost for twelve days and when he came home he was so glad to be there, he accepted The Interloper as part of the package.

She really enjoyed him being gone. The kingdom belonged to her without some annoying cat ridden by glandular issues smacking at her all the time.

“Mama, why did you let him come back? Wasn’t I good enough for you?”

Poor kitty.

I think the real reason they are getting along so well is in their joint efforts to shut out the latest addition to our backyard, The Mongoose.

A month or so ago, we were overrun with cats. As in there were eight of them in our backyard and I was not going to stand for it. After running them off repeatedly, this little guy kept sneaking back.

He’s terrified of everything, half-starved and completely pathetic. What were we to do? Especially since he looks like the love child of The Heinous Cat and The Interloper.

We named him Mongoose – Goose for short – because of the way he bobs his head, lurks around corners and dashes around grabbing bites of food when he thinks no one is watching.

I would, however, like to issue this statement: The Hatfield Cat Farm is no longer accepting any new boarders, tenants or stow-aways. If you have a feline, please ask them to pass this news along. We are full-up, at maximum cat capacity, and I will not willing take on another one. Nope. All done.